Break the Boredom Cycle

The past few days I have done nothing but lounge around, watch movies, cook noodles without any spices, I felt that I needed to do something exploratory today. My initial intention was to go all the way out to Kinkaku-ji Temple in the Northwest corner of Kyoto city, but once I left my apartment I realized that I forgot my map and "explore Kyoto" travel guide at my desk at school. I certainly did not want to show up on my vacation and break into the school to free my map and such, that would not have set a good precedent for the next year. As a result, I decided that a little subway cruisin' was in order.

Luckily enough, Sanjo Keihan is only 4 stops from Yamashina. Sanjo is a famous tourist location and has a huge shopping district with lots of local and foreign goods. When I say shopping district many of you will assume an indoor mall or something of the like; your assumption would be incorrect. This area is like a large swap-meet style street with tako-like tentacles (tako=octopus...they are delicious by the way). I was a bit taken back while I walked down the street. There were thousands of shops, as far as the street stretched. Fearing the unknown and the strange, as well as the prospect that I might get myself lost, I trudged the massive collection of alleyway and side streets in a robotic left-turn only pattern. Once I found my bearings and the main street everything was much easier to navigate. The surprising part was the amazing amount of similar items from store to store. Aside from the countless "engrish" t-shirt stores, where english words grouped into nonsensical phrases are emblazoned on the fronts of individual tees; such as, "Give Free Now" and any other imaginable combination of nouns, adjectives, and verbs one could conjure. But there were countless omiyagi(souvenirs) places, 100yen shops, hat stores (selling the same exact hats), chopstick vendors and jewelery alleys. One of the more fancy places was this lovely establishment:

Apparently, everything was on sale in an attempt to help the "world without strangers" organization. It sounded pretty fishy to me.

There is one more thing to mention about the Sanjo shopping district. It is that the entire area is built around several shrines, temples and cemeteries. I went into one of the temples but there were people inside praying so i did not think it was appropriate to take pictures like a silly foreigner. It was a pretty unique experience taking one step through the gate into the Buddhist shrine from the shopping mall. It was strangely serene considering the holy ground was surrounded by a movie theater and hat store and a cemetery. Here is a picture of one of the smaller shrines. This area was not swimming with people. An interesting shopping experience, nonetheless.


Needless to say, I got turned around. I knew where I was, but i was ridiculously far from the subway station that I knew would take me home. I decided to be adventurous and take a long way around. I found another subway about half a mile West of where I wanted to go so i attempted, but failed, to find another train home. The result was the walk of shame up a beautiful river to my destination. The Sanjo-dori bridge, as i believe it is called, is fairly popular amongst young people and on weekend and evenings the riverside is filled with people playing music and drinking.



After the long walk back to the station, I jumped on a train, the wrong train, and took a trip in the right direction but on the wrong connecting line. Such is the adventures of life. But our story does not end there, in the train station I purchased some confectionery and baked delectables (yes, i made it a noun, sue me) for lunch. The first was a croissant with a thin layer of chocolate and the second was a pale green, puffy bun with what i assumed was delicious red-bean paste injected into the center. My mouth watered with every torturous step home. I would have eaten on the train, as i was already ravenous at this time, but eating in public is a no-no in Japanese society. Stomach growling, I quickened my pace as I reached my neighborhood, found here:



I fumble my keys at the door to my apartment, my Jager lanyard catches the door, I slip my sneakers off at the walkway-they go sailing, I empty my pockets onto the table as I turn on my fan with my right foot and air conditioner with my left hand, I kneel on the floor and quickly, yet delicately, open the pink plastic baker's bag only to find another bag, which I destroy immediately. The gorgeous green pastry likely filled with delicious, sweet red-bean paste speeds toward my nearly drooling mouth. Contact. Success my brain screams only to realize the unfamiliar taste and texture of orange pudding surrounded by puffy pastry. And alas, the sultry red-bean paste has eluded me again. The memory of my trip to Sanjo-dori is a gooey and citrusy one.
~Gio